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JPEG Performance
One of the obvious changes to the G7 X Mark II’s image processing is with sharpening$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2662”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2662); }); }). For the G7 X Mark II, the large radius sharpening has been increased, which does enhance certain types of detail$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2664”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2664); }); }), but ultimately emphasizes lower frequency detail$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2676”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2676); }); }) over high frequency detail. A significant downside of large radius sharpening is more pronounced sharpening halos$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2663”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2663); }); }) compared to the G7 X, which can look particularly egregious$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2675”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2675); }); }) next to the more refined sharpening the RX100 IV demonstrates (pay attention to the edges of the color patches).
Noise reduction has also changed. When we took the G7 X Mark II to Sasquatch! music festival, we noticed noise reduction at base ISO was fairly strong. Compared to the G7 X$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2672”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2672); }); }), we can see the stronger algorithm in action, especially when compared to the amount of detail visible in Raw$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2671”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2671); }); }) mode. The excessive noise reduction combined with the large radius sharpening we mentioned earlier mean that fine detail isn’t as well preserved in the JPEG as it could be.
The benefit of both the sharpening and NR parts of the new engine is better detail retention at higher ISOs$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2670”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2670); }); }), with an ISO 1600 shot from the G7 X Mark II shot showing as much detail as an ISO 800 shot from the G7 X. At the highest ISOs, 6400$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2668”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2668); }); }) and 12800$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2674”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2674); }); }), the image engine oddly remains unchanged.
Raw Performance
Raw high ISO performance in low light remains largely the same as the G7 X$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2677”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2677); }); }), which is right where we expect image quality to be from the Sony sensor used across many 1-inch type cameras$ (document).ready(function() { $ (“#imageComparisonLink2678”).click(function() { ImageComparisonWidgetLink(2678); }); }).
These improvements come with many other changes for the G7 X Mark II, which will be covered in our full review. Stay tuned!
To demonstrate the effect of each slider I’m going to show you a picture in various states of editing, as I adjust values for each option one by one. If you are used to using the Exposure (note in the screenshot on the right what areas of your image are affected by moving the Exposure slider) and Contrast sliders to adjust your images, you may want to put those aside for now and focus on these other four instead, as they can give you significantly better results.
I mentioned the Exposure slider in the previous paragraph, which is a tool that adjusts the overall brightness or darkness of an entire image (based on the midtones). The Highlights slider allows you to perform a similar type of adjustment, but only with the brightest parts of an image (tones not quite pure white). Moving it to the left will make the brightest parts darker, and moving it to the right will make the same parts brighter. Hover over the Highlights slider with your mouse to see on the histogram which parts of the image will be affected (see screenshot at the right).
In a similar vein as the Highlights slider, the Shadows option makes the dark parts of your image a little brighter (see image right for which areas are affected). It’s kind of like using the Exposure slider to make your image brighter, but restricting it only to the sections of an image that are very dark, while ignoring the rest. This works wonders on pictures that are underexposed, as modern cameras have image sensors that capture an amazing amount of detail in the shadows, particularly at lower ISO values. It’s rare that you will need to (or even want to) boost the shadow level clear up to 100, but it’s nice knowing Lightroom at least gives you the option of doing so.
This is related to the highlights, but has a slightly different impact on your image, that is subtle but quite impactful. Adjusting this to the right essentially makes the white tones in your image, more pure white. It affects all the white tones in the photo (see image on the right) as opposed to the highlights slider which only deals with a narrow range of very bright colors.
Similar to the Whites slider, this one adjusts the black point of your image, or how dark the darkest portions really render. I almost always slide this to the left to give my photos a little more punch. It helps pictures have a little more contrast, while bringing out a lot more color in any image as a whole.
